Mexico Disarms Police in Missing Students’ City

Mexican federal forces disarmed a southern city’s entire police corps and took over security Monday after officers were accused of colluding with a gang in violence that left 43 students missing.

The deployment in Iguala, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Mexico City, came after President Enrique Peña Nieto pledged justice in a case whose motive remains a mystery.

Authorities discovered a mass grave on a hill outside Iguala over the weekend containing 28 unidentified bodies, raising fears over the fate of the students, who were last seen in the city more than a week ago.

Authorities say it will take at least two weeks to get the results of DNA tests to identify the badly burned corpses.

The case could become one of Mexico’s worst slaughters since the drug war intensified in 2006, leaving between 80,000-100,000 people dead or missing to date, and the most horrific since Peña Nieto took office in December 2012.

Convoys of the government’s new paramilitary-like gendarmerie police force and army trucks rumbled down the streets of Iguala.

Officials said more than 400 police and gendarmes were dispatched to patrol streets and man checkpoints with an unspecified number of soldiers.